Prior, Grulke et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,486, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a surgical suction/irrigation handpiece including a barrel which at its front end supports a detachable tip unit. The tip unit has a forward extending tube whose front end has suction inlet and irrigation outlet ports for insertion into a surgical site. The irrigation outlet port supplies irrigation liquid to the surgical site to loosen and place in suspension bits of debris produced in the surgical site during surgery. The thus liquid-suspended debris can be then removed from the surgical site by the suction portion of the tip unit and handpiece. The handpiece disclosed in this prior patent includes a pulsing pump to provide a sharply pulsed irrigant liquid flow, which has been found particularly advantageous in loosening debris at the surgical site so that such debris can be placed in liquid suspension and drawn off by the suction portion of the handpiece.
Kutner U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,328 provides a light bulb near the far end of an aspirating tip. However, this prior device exposes its bulb to breakage with risk of leaving glass fragments in the surgical site; shadows its light output by its aspiration tip which extends far forward from the bulb and bends partway around the bulb; locates the bulb and associated wiring and battery and switch outside the fluid transfer tube in a bulky, space-consuming "side saddle" position; locates its bulb far from the central aspiration axis; and directly exposes tissue in the surgical site to the heat of the bulb.
Prior Betz et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,617,013 and 4,759,349 provide suction or suction/irrigation handpiece tips with illumination by light transmitting optical fiber or rod extending the length of the suction or suction/irrigation tip unit for transmitting light to the surgical site from a remote lamp, for example a lamp carried at the rear end of the tip unit. However, transmitting of light from the near end of the handpiece to the far end thereof through an elongate light transmitting rod or bundle of optical fibers may result in loss of illumination intensity and require, in compensation, a higher intensity (thus normally higher heat producing) lamp. Indeed, Betz U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,349, above mentioned, provides at the near end of the tip unit a special heat sink which encloses the lamp and is intended to transfer heat away from it to avoid overheating the handpiece and of the suction/irrigation tip.
The objects and purposes of this invention include provision of illuminated tip unit of suction and/or irrigation kind capable of enhancing removal of debris from surgical sites, including difficult surgical sites such as the femoral canal in a hip replacement or revision surgery, and to provide such a device which overcomes disadvantages in prior devices, such as those above discussed.
Further objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this kind upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
In one embodiment according to the invention, a tip unit is adapted to extend forward from the barrel of surgical handpiece for fluid transfer with respect to a surgical site, the tip unit comprising a boxlike casing and means for extending the casing forward from the handpiece barrel, and a fluid transfer tube extending unbroken and in sealed relation through axially aligned holes in the front and rear walls of the casing for connection with fluid transfer means of the handpiece.
In another embodiment according to the invention, a tip unit is adapted to extend forward from the barrel of a surgical handpiece for fluid transfer with respect to a surgical site, the tip unit comprising a body, a boxlike casing extending forward from the body, a fluid transfer tube extending forward from the casing, a lamp adjacent the far end of the tube, a switch bar extending laterally through the casing and supported for longitudinal movement in the casing, battery cells fixed together side-by-side laterally in the casing, each cell having a first end facing the wall of the casing and a second end facing the switch bar, a first electrical connection between the first ends of the battery cells adjacent the casing wall, second electrical connection between the second end of one of such battery cell and lamp, and an electrical contact on the second end of the other battery cell. The switch bar has a longitudinally extending side with a first part slidable on a second end of the one cell and a second part slidable on the electrical contact on the second end of the other cell so that the switch bar blocks the battery cells from moving away from the casing wall and thereby fixes the cells in the casing. The switch bar has an electrical contact connected to the lamp and slidably engageable with the electrical contact on the other battery cell.
In still another embodiment of the invention, a tip unit is adapted to extend forward from the barrel of a surgical handpiece for fluid transfer with respect to a surgical site, the tip unit comprising a fluid transfer tube and means for projecting same forward from the handpiece barrel, such tube having internal webs dividing same into longitudinally extending passages, including a suction passage, an irrigation passage, and an electrical conductor guide passage, a lamp within the far end of the tube, and a light transmit enclosure at the far end of the guide passage to seal against entry of liquid into contact with the lamp, the lamp being located just behind the light transmit enclosure to project light forward therefrom where irrigation liquid is expelled from the irrigation passage.